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This special episode to celebrate Poetry Day Ireland aired on 27th April 2023, produced and hosted by Damien B. Donnelly. Below are details and links to the guest stars…
Antrim
Niamh McNally is a Belfast-based poet. She completed her MA in Ulster University where she co-created and was a poetry editor for The Paperclip; a student-led, literary publication. Niamh is a workshop facilitator in The Seamus Heaney Homeplace and has been published in, The Tulsa Review, Tír na nÓg, Capsule Stories, The Galway Review, Snowflake Magazine, Aôthen Magazine, and HOWL: New Irish Writing. Her poetry has featured on the BBC and in two climate crisis films, ‘It Seems’ and ‘Defining Hope’. Niamh’s poem ‘If Stone Could Speak’ was showcased by Bushmills as promotion for The Causeway Collection and her first solo publication ‘New Impressions’ was published by The John Hewitt Society for the Look North Festival 2023.
Twitter https://twitter.com/NiamhyMcNally
Armagh
Seán McNicholl is an Irish GP who enjoys writing short stories and poems in a variety of genres. He has had work published in Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Raw Lit, 34th Parallel, BarBar and two anthologies from Wicked Shadow Press. He has featured on the Blue Marble Storytellers Podcast and the Read Lots Write Lots podcast. For more: http://www.seanmcnicholl.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/SeanMcNicholl
Website https://www.seanmcnicholl.com/
Carlow
Derek Coyle published his first collection, Reading John Ashbery in Costa Coffee Carlow in a dual-language edition in Tranas Sweden and Carlow Ireland in April 2019, and it was shortlisted for the Shine Strong 2020 poetry award. He lectures in Carlow College/St Patrick’s, Ireland. His second collection, Sipping Martinis under Mount Leinster is due in the summer of 2023. Derek Coyle has published poems in The Irish Times, Irish Pages, The Texas Literary Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Orbis, Skylight 47, Assaracus, and The Stony Thursday Book.
Cavan
Fidel Hogan Walsh has written and performed her poetry to a wide audience. Her work has appeared in Poethead, Pendemic, UCD Archives, Poetry Ireland – Poetry Town Pocket Poems booklet, The Irish Times, guest poet on The Artist Room, Iontas Theatre, Monaghan. The Storms Journal, and on The Eat the Storms podcast numerous times. Fidel has three short stories and two poems in Thrice Remembered – An Anthology of Cavan Writings 2022. Fidel was the Inaugural Winner of the Enlighten Prize with Hambly & Hambly, with her poem ‘What Peace Feels Like’, and again in September 2021 with her poem ‘for you’. Imagine: Arts Unlocked at Hambly & Hambly Dunbar House, Enniskillen and ‘Culture by Candlelight’ with Fermanagh Omagh Arts Office. Fidel’s first collection of poems ‘Living with Love’ was launched on the 8th February 2020. Funded by a grant from Bailieborough Development Association. Collaborations that Inspire is a series of Fidel’s poems paired with various artists. Both Fidel and the artist involved interpreting each other’s works in a collaborative brainstorming of ideas. Her second collection of poetry ‘Time’ in collaboration with conceptual photographer Julie Corcoran, was funded by a grant from Cavan Arts Office launched on Culture Night 2020. During Covid-19 lockdowns, Julie and Fidel produced poetry reading videos of the poems/images from their book ‘Time.’ She has also been involved in two Cross Border Peace IV Projects and has written poems for both, ‘Peaceful Photography’ August 2019 Bailieborough Development Association and Dungannon & Cookstown Camera Club funded by Peace IV and SEUBP and ‘Empowering Women’, Next Chapter. Fidel was one of the founding members of Bailieborugh Creative Hub and Chair from 2019 to 2021. Fidel is currently Vice Chair of Friends of Castle Lake environmental group based in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan.
Twitter https://twitter.com/dragonslayerma
Clare
Karen J McDonnell is published recently in the anthologies Vital Signs, Poems of Illness and Healing (Poetry Ireland) and Romance Options (Dedalus Press), in Crannóg, The Stony Thursday, Drawn to the Light, The Cormorant and The North. Her poem Driftwood was shortlisted for 2021 Irish Poem of the Year. Work has been Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominated. Her debut collection is This Little World (Doire Press). She is currently working on two poetry projects.
Twitter https://twitter.com/karenjmcdonnell
Cork
Geoff Ward, MA Lit., is a writer, poet, musician, singer-songwriter, journalist and book editor. Also a creative writing tutor and mentor, he is the author of two books, ‘Spirals: the Pattern of Existence’, a study of the spiral form and pattern in nature and human culture, and ‘A Raft of Dreams’, a selection of poetry and short stories.
Twitter https://twitter.com/GeoffJWard
Website https://geoffward.wixsite.com/geoff-ward
Derry
Mark Burns was born in Derry in 1969. He has worked as a music and arts journalist for The Derry News, Citizen magazine and the Culture NI website. He is a published poet and has performed spoken word sets at The Stendhal Arts Festival and Foyle Folk Club. He was shortlisted for the Brian Moore Short Story Award, 2008. He also presents several music shows on Drive 105FM and regularly includes poetry as part of his shows. He writes because he cannot sing.
Donegal
Dominic J. Sweeney is from Donegal, Ireland. Besides poetry, he enjoys a simple life of working in a Greek restaurant while learning the language at his own pace. He was most recently longlisted in the An Cúirt New Writing Prize 2023 and mentored by Grace Wilentz in collaboration with The Gallery Press.
Twitter https://twitter.com/chinesenecklace
Down
Ross Thompson is a writer and Arts Council award recipient from Bangor, Northern Ireland. His debut poetry collection Threading The Light is published by Dedalus Press. His work has appeared on television, radio, short films and in a wide range of publications. Most recently, he wrote and curated A Silent War, a collaborative audio response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is currently preparing a second full-length book of poems.
Dublin
Damien B. Donnelly is the host and producer of the poetry podcast Eat the Storms and the editor-in-chief of The Storms, a journal of poetry, prose and visual art. His debut pamphlet, Eat the Storms, published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, nominated for a Pushcart Prize and featured on the Poetry Book Society Winter List 2020/21, followed by a Pushcart Prize nominated Stickleback (micro collection) and In the Jitterfritz of Neon, a conversational pamphlet co-written with Eilín de Paor. His first full collection Enough! was published by Hedgehog in August 2022. He took 3rd place in the Fingal Festival Poetry Slam 2022. His poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals, both online and in print. His 2nd full collection is due out on 2024.
Twitter https://twitter.com/deuxiemepeau
Website https://deuxiemepeaupoetry.com/
Fermanagh
Trish Bennett hails from the Leitrim/Fermanagh border. Her poem representing Fermanagh, ‘The Stench of Poetry’, was published in The Polaris Trilogy by Brick Street Poetry Inc. and is headed to the moon on a 2024 NASA flight as part of the Lunar Codex. Bennett’s micro-pamphlet, Borderlines, Hedgehog Press (2019), is free to download at trishbennettwriter.com.
Galway
American-Irish poet Jamie O’Halloran is the author of the four chapbooks, including Corona Connemara & Half a Crown, a winner in the 2021 Fool for Poetry Competition. She has published widely in Irish, UK and US magazines, including Poetry Ireland Review, 14 Magazine, One Hand Clapping, and The Night Heron Barks. Her poems appear in a dozen anthologies, including Romance Options and Local Wonders from Dedalus Press. She was 2021 Artist in Residence at Brigit’s Garden in County Galway and is a recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award. She lives in Connemara in above a river with her husband, two donkeys and one cat.
Twitter https://twitter.com/JamieOHallo108
Kerry
Marian Lovett grew up in Tralee Co. Kerry. She is an arts writer, curator and occasional poet who divides her time between Sligo, Dublin and Kerry. Her poetry often takes a feminist perspective, while family, personal and political themes also feature. She is the Connaught slam poetry champion and was a finalist in the All Ireland poetry slam which took place in Cork last November. She is a recent graduate of Trinity College Dublin.
Kildare
Cathy Conlon is the winner of the 2023 Poetry for Patience competition. She was joint winner of PENfro First Chapter Competition 2016 and has been shortlisted for the RTE P.J. O’Connor Radio Drama Awards. She won second prize in The Waterford Poetry Prize 2020 and was shortlisted for the Trim Poetry Festival 2020 and Seventh Bangor Poetry Competition 2019. Her poems have appeared in The Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, Books Ireland, Cuirt Journal, Ropes, Skylight 47, and in numerous online journals. Her short stories have appeared in Brevity is the Soul (Liberties Press) Stories for the Ear (Kildare County Council) Boyne Berries, and in literary journals online. She lives in Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
Twitter https://twitter.com/cat_conlon
Kilkenny
Darren Donohue is an award-winning poet and playwright living in Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. His poetry is widely published in journals and newspapers including Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, Irish Times, Sunday Independent, Banshee Press, Strokestown Poetry Anthology, Dedalus Press (Anthology, Local Wonders), Dedalus Press (Anthology, Romantic Options) Poetry Ireland (A Bowl of Mysteries), RTE Culture website, Books Ireland. His received the Dennis O’Driscoll Literary Award, 2020. Darren was writer-in-residence at Carlow College, St Patrick’s, 2019, and the Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, 2020. His debut poetry collection titled; Secret Poets is published by Turas Press.
Twitter https://twitter.com/DarrenDonohue1
Laois
Dr Arthur Broomfield is a poet, short story writer and Beckett scholar from County Laois. His current collection is Ireland Calling. Revival Press. Arthur is poet laurate of Mountmellick.
Twitter https://twitter.com/youdontmakemesc
Leitrim
Kevin McManus is a poet and writer from Leitrim. He has published six novels, a collection of short stories, and two books of poetry. His latest poetry book called “The Hawthorn Tree” was published by Lapwing Publications, Belfast. His poems have been published in various journals including the Cormorant, the Galway Review, the Honest Ulsterman, the London Grip, and the Californian Catamaran. He is currently working on his third poetry collection, which will be published later this year. One of his poems called “Lost Souls” has been adapted into a short film and has received awards at a number of short film festivals.
Twitter https://twitter.com/bassbreeze
Limerick
A Professor of Cultural Sociology, Eoin Devereux’s poetry has been published by The Irish Times, broadcast on RTE’s Poetry Programme and featured on Poetry Ireland’s Words Lightly Spoken Podcast. Published in Ireland and Internationally in numerous journals and anthologies, his poem ‘The Bodhi Tree’ was short-listed for a Hennessy Award in 2018. Eoin curated the Limerick Poetry Broadsheet ‘April Is The Cruellest Month’ in 2022 which featured work by the renowned poets and writers John Liddy, Martin Dyar, Emily Cullen and Donal Ryan. His poem ‘The Bullfield’ was published in the Poetry Ireland anthology Vital Signs edited by Martin Dyar in 2022. Eoin teaches the course Creative Writers in the Community on the MA in Creative Writing at University of Limerick, Ireland. He has recently co-edited the book DREAMS: 50 YEARS OF CULTURE, CREATIVITY AND COMMUNITY AT UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK with Joseph O’Connor and Sarah Moore, published by Irish Academic Press. His poetry is concerned with Social Class, Homelessness and Mental Illness.
Twitter https://twitter.com/ProfDevereux
Louth
Catherine Ann Cullen was the inaugural Poet in Residence at Poetry Ireland 2019-21. She is a multi-award-winning poet, children’s writer and songwriter, and recipient of a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in 2018. She is a scholar of broadside ballads and is currently an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral fellow at UCD and Poetry Ireland, researching a book on Dublin’s lost street poets and tenement balladeers. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Middlesex University. Her third poetry collection, The Other Now: New and Selected Poems was published by Dedalus Press in 2016, and her seventh book, The Song of Brigid’s Cloak, was published by Beehive Books in October 2022.
Twitter https://twitter.com/tarryathome
Website https://catherineanncullen.wordpress.com/
Longford
John Noonan has been Highly Commended for his collection in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2022, his work has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, and many more anthologies, literary magazines in Ireland and abroad. has just finished working on a commission from Creative Ireland entitled ‘Threading the Táin’, a visual arts/poetry project which traces the story of the ancient epic ‘Táin Bó Cuailgne. John is a Pushcart nominee – the Over the Edge Festival featured poet in 2021 and is the chosen reader for this year’s showcase Cúirt International Literary Festival Galway. He is also a past recipient of The Goldsmith International Poetry Award.
Mayo
Marian Kilcoyne is an Irish poet. She has been widely published in Ireland, UK, USA and Europe. Her book The Heart Uncut was published in 2020 by Wordsonthestreet publishers Galway. She lives in Belfast and Co. Mayo.
Twitter https://twitter.com/Mariankilcoyne2
Website www.mariankilcoyne.com
Meath
Anne McDonald is an award winning writer, artist, spoken word poet and creative writing facilitator. She has had poetry, short stories and non fiction published in Ireland and the UK and art published in The Storms inaugural issue and The Banyan Review. She has performed in Dublin and London as part of the Women Of Wit collective and is a regular reader on open mic nights in Ireland, the US and the UK. Her poetry has been animated and set to music and her first collection of poetry “Crow’s Books” was published in March 2021. Anne has curated the Write Time Festival for Fingal in 2022 and is currently curating the 2023 festival.
Twitter https://twitter.com/scarecrowbooks
Website https://creativelythinkingweb.wordpress.com/writing-and-spoken-word/
Monaghan
Ted Mc Carthy is a poet and translator living in Clones, Co. Monaghan His work has appeared in magazines in Ireland, the UK, Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia. He has had two collections published, ‘November Wedding’ (Lilliput), and ‘Some Poems’ (Moth). He is also author of a number of podcasts.
Website https://tedmccarthyspoetry.weebly.com/
Offaly
Born and raised in Offaly and now living in East Cork, Yvonne Brewer has had poetry published since 2014 with Women’s Spiritual Poetry, The Blue Nib, Momaya Press, Spill Words and Beyond Words. Her first poetry collection “Twigs” was released in 2018. In 2021 she had a poem selected in Poetry in The Park by Cork City Libraries and Cork City Council.
Twitter https://twitter.com/brewer_yvo
Roscommon
Christa de Brún is a poet from Kiltoom, Co. Roscommon. Her poetry has been most recently published in The Ekphrastic Review, Drawn to the Light Press, The Waxed Lemon and The New Word Order, and anthologized in Addictions and Cathal Bui Selected Poetry 2021-2022. She was shortlisted for the Anthology Prize 2020 and the Roscommon Poetry Prize at the Strokestown International Festival 2021. She is a recipient of the Artist Bursary Award 2023 and is currently working on her first collection.
Twitter https://twitter.com/ChristaDebrun
Sligo
Maeve McKenna lives in Sligo, Ireland. Her work has been placed in several international poetry competitions and published widely, including Rattle, Mslexia, Banshee and The Stony Thursday Book. Maeve was one of three finalists in the Eavan Boland Mentorship Award 2020. She was part of a collaboration with three poets that won the Dreich Alliance Pamphlet Competition. Her debut pamphlet, A Dedication to Drowning, was published in February 2022. A second pamphlet, Body as a Home for This Darkness, will be published in 2023. She is currently a MA student of Poetry at Queens University, Belfast.
Twitter https://twitter.com/Maeve_McKenna1
Tipperary
Susan Richardson is the author of Things My Mother Left Behind (Potter’s Grove Press), and Tiger Lily (JC Studio Press), an Ekphrastic Collaboration with artist Jane Cornwell. Susan also writes the blog, “Stories from the Edge of Blindness.” Her poems have appeared in The Storms, Crannog, California Quarterly, Ink Sweat and Tears, and The Opiate Magazine, among others. Originally from Los Angeles, she now lives in a town in Tipperary with her husband, 2 pugs and 2 cats.
Website https://floweringink.com/
Tyrone
Marie-Louise McGuinness comes from outside Omagh and enjoys writing from a sensory perspective. She has work published in numerous magazines including Bending Genres, Intrepidus Ink, Roi Faineant Press and The Airgonaut.
Twitter https://twitter.com/mlmcguinness
Waterford
Ger Duffy lives in Co Waterford. She is a poet, playwright and teacher. Her poems were published by Slow Dancer Press (UK), Viking Press (UK), Voxgalvia, The Waxed Lemon, Southword, The Stony Thursday Book, Local wonders Dedalus Press, Cathal Bui anthology. Her poems have won prizes at Westival Poetry Competition 2020, WTC 2020, The Goldmsiths International Poetry Competition 2021, The Red Line Poetry Competition 2021& 2022, The Frances Ledwidge Poetry awards 2023. In 2022, her work was selected for the WHAT healing arts project in WRH. In 2021, she was the recipient of a Mentorship in Poetry from The Munster Literature Centre (Irl). In 2022, she was a featured new writer at the Cork Poetry Festival and she received a Mentorship in Poetry from the National Mentoring Scheme.
Westmeath
Phil Lynch grew up in Westmeath and his poetry has appeared in a range of literary journals, anthologies, and various other media. He has been a winner, runner-up and highly commended in poetry competitions. Phil is a regular performer of his work at poetry and spoken word events and festivals in Ireland and further afield and has also been an organiser and curator of such events. His collection, In a Changing Light, (Salmon Poetry), was published in 2016. A new collection is in preparation. Link to more information about Phil and his collection, In a Changing Light, on Salmon Poetry’s website: https://www.salmonpoetry.com/author-details.php?ID=394&a=284 Link to more details about Phil including video and audio examples of his work: https://artnetdlr.ie/poet-phil-lynch/
Wexford
Chris Black began life on the planet in Portarlington Co. Laois spent his working life in Dublin, retired to Wexford dabbled in local radio for a number of years. Now enjoys the writerly life, open mic nights and daily scribbling. Poems published in various anthologies, Irish Independent, Galway Review in editions of Free Press Newspapers and previous editions of Wexford Bohemian. When a member of Gorey writers he had work published in both their anthologies Fledglings and Taking Flight. @redbookspublishing in a date to be announced will publish the following poetry book titled Down on the farm a follow on from his first book Same Train, Different Track released in September 2016 ISBN: 978-1-907855-14-6 copies are available @RedBooksWexford and @RedBooksGorey.
Twitter https://twitter.com/ManShedPoetry
Wicklow
Frances Browner resides in Wicklow and is a creative writing tutor for Dun Laoghaire/Dublin ETB and Greystones Cancer Support. She facilitated a Poets Wall & Poetry Trail in Greystones during lockdown and has resumed hosting the monthly Poets Parlour there. She presented an evening of poetry and song in the Whale Theatre, Poems in the Stones 2020, and numerous poetry events in the Hot Spot Music Club and Greystones library. Winner of a Haiku competition in Dun Laoghaire Local Voices, 2020, Frances has also had many poems featured in journals and anthologies. Her collection, Roots & Wings, was published by Revival Press, in 2019.
Twitter https://twitter.com/frannerb2
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